Pollution causes more illness and early death than any other environmental threat, accounting for one in six deaths worldwide. For decades, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) has driven many of the biggest advances for safeguarding human health and ecosystems from chemicals.
But that changed when a recent Supreme Court ruling gave the Trump administration the green light to proceed with widespread redundancies and the total elimination of ORD.
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Now, in so doing, the US is not just gutting its own scientific foundation. It’s also putting decades of global progress in chemical safety, pollution control and public health at risk.
ORD is the EPA’s independent science arm, conducting research that supports clean air, water and land. From detecting pollutants and assessing health risks to guiding environmental cleanup, it ensures EPA decisions are grounded in credible, evidence-based research. ORD develops this science under intense scientific, policy, political and legal scrutiny, which means it produces the best available science that is credible and robust.
While most scientists focused on known pollutants, ORD used advanced screening tools to detect GenX, a little-known synthetic “forever chemical”. Despite evidence that GenX was contaminating the river basin since the 1980s, not much was known about its potential to harm living systems.
Forever chemicals were found to be polluting North Carolina’s Cape Fear River in the US. Kosoff/Shutterstock, CC BY-NC-ND
ORD rapidly filled this void, linking GenX to decreased birth weight and increased mortality in newborn rats, prompting swift regulatory action against the manufacturer to ensure cleaner, safer water for local communities. No other government agency in the world delivers this kind of rapid, science-led response.
It’s not just the strength of ORD’s science that sets it apart, but also its visionary thinking. Among ORD’s most influential ideas is a model that maps out how a chemical is causing harm.
This works like a chain of building blocks, linking tiny effects (like a chemical disrupting a hormone) to much bigger problems, such as cancer or even extinction. Each step shows how one change leads to another until it reaches something we truly care about. This approach helps scientists detect danger early, before it leads to irreversible damage.
Then there’s the EPA’s groundbreaking work in computational toxicology. Nearly two decades ago, leading scientists warned that chemical safety testing relied too heavily on outdated methods and animal experiments.
In response, ORD built ToxCast, a system that uses tiny cells and computer models to screen thousands of chemicals for effects like endocrine disruption or cell damage. It’s faster, cheaper and more humane, and helps scientists predict which substances may pose serious risks.
These scientific breakthroughs don’t come from policy offices. They require researchers with the independence to explore and innovate.
Beyond the US
Europe has bold goals to phase out animal testing. Much of the science driving this shift comes from ORD.
Tools like Ecotox (the world’s largest chemical toxicity database) and the CompTox dashboard (a platform that links predictive models and non-animal test data for over a million substances) are widely used across the EU and UK. Without ORD, these vital resources, hosted by EPA, could disappear, stalling global progress toward safer, more ethical chemical testing.
ORD is a leading scientific institution with global reach. Its tools and ideas have shaped how governments detect hazardous chemicals, understand their effects, and protect people and the planet. From toxicity databases to modern, non-animal testing methods, ORD underpins how we respond to pollution. Eliminating it would create a dangerous void, just as chemical and climate threats are accelerating.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
North Carolina State University receives funding from the California Air Resources Board for a research project for which Dr. Frey is a co-principal investigator. H. Christopher Frey served from 2022 to 2024 as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development, and as Science Advisor, at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Tamara Tal previously worked at the US EPA in the Office of Research and Development.
Imagine waking up to the news that a deadly new strain of flu has emerged in your city. Health officials are downplaying it, but social media is flooded with contradictory claims from “medical experts” debating its origin and severity.
Hospitals are filled with patients showing flu-like symptoms, preventing other patients from accessing care and ultimately leading to deaths. It gradually emerges that a foreign adversary orchestrated this panic by planting false information – such as the strain having a very high death rate. Yet despite the casualties, no rules define this as an act of war.
This is cognitive warfare, or cog war for short, where the cognitive domain is used on battlefields or in hostile attacks below the threshold of war.
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A classical example of cog war is a concept called “reflexive control” – an art refined by Russia over many decades. It involves shaping an adversary’s perceptions to your own benefit without them understanding that they have been manipulated.
In the context of the Ukraine conflict, this has included narratives about historical claims to Ukrainian land and portraying the west as morally corrupt.
Cog war serves to gain advantage over an adversary by targeting attitudes and behaviour at the individual, group or population level. It is designed to modify perceptions of reality, making “human cognition shaping” into a critical realm of warfare. It is therefore a weapon in a geopolitical battle that plays out by interactions across human minds rather than across physical realms.
Because cog war can be waged without the physical damage regulated by the current laws of war, it exists in a legal vacuum. But that doesn’t mean it cannot ultimately incite violence based on false information or cause injury and death by secondary effects.
Battle of minds, bodily damage
The notion that war is essentially a mental contest, where cognitive manipulation is central, harks back to the strategist Sun Tzu (fifth century BC), author of The Art of War. Today, the online domain is the main arena for such operations.
The digital revolution has allowed ever-more tailored content to play into biases mapped through our digital footprint, which is called “microtargeting”. Machine intelligence can even feed us targeted content without ever taking a picture or recording a video. All it takes is a well-designed AI prompt, supporting bad actors’ pre-defined narrative and goals, while covertly misleading the audience.
Such disinformation campaigns increasingly reach into the physical domain of the human body. In the war in Ukraine, we see continued cog war narratives. These include allegations that the Ukrainian authorities were concealing or purposefully inciting cholera outbreaks. Allegations of US-supported bioweapons labs also formed part of false-flag justifications for Russia’s full-scale invasion.
During COVID, false information led to deaths when people refused protective measures or used harmful remedies to treat it. Some narratives during the pandemic were driven as part of a geopolitical battle. While the US engaged in covert information operations, Russian and Chinese state-linked actors coordinated campaigns that used AI-generated social media personas and microtargeting to shape opinions at the level of communities and individuals.
Fake image of Donald Trump being arrested. wikipedia
The capability of microtargeting may evolve rapidly as methods for brain-machine coupling become more proficient at collecting data on cognition patterns. Ways of providing a better interface between machines and the human brain range from advanced electrodes that you can put on your scalp to virtual reality goggles with sensory stimulation for a more immersive experience.
Darpa’s Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program illustrates how these devices may become capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once. However, these tools might also be hacked or fed poisoned data as a part of future information manipulation or psychological disruption strategies. Directly linking the brain to the digital world in this way will erode the line between the information domain and the human body in a way never done before.
Legal gap
Traditional laws of war assume physical force such as bombs and bullets as the primary concern, leaving cognitive warfare in a legal grey zone. Is psychological manipulation an “armed attack” that justifies self-defence under the UN charter? Currently, no clear answer exists. A state actor could potentially use health disinformation to create mass casualties in another country without formally starting a war.
Similar gaps exist in situations where war, as we traditionally see it, is actually ongoing. Here, cog war can blur the line between permitted military deception (ruses of war) and prohibited perfidy.
Imagine a humanitarian vaccination programme secretly collecting DNA, while covertly used by military forces to map clan-based insurgent networks. This exploitation of medical trust would constitute perfidy under humanitarian law – but only if we start recognising such manipulative tactics as part of warfare.
Developing regulations
So, what can be done to protect us in this new reality? First, we need to rethink what “threats” mean in modern conflict. The UN charter already outlaws “threats to use force” against other nations, but this makes us stuck in a mindset of physical threats.
When a foreign power floods your media with false health alerts designed to create panic, isn’t that threatening your country just as effectively as a military blockade?
While this issue was recognised as early as 2017, by the groups of experts who drafted the Tallinn Manual on cyberwarfare (Rule 70), our legal frameworks haven’t caught up.
Second, we must acknowledge that psychological harm is real harm. When we think about war injuries, we picture physical wounds. But post-traumatic stress disorder has long been recognised as a legitimate war injury – so why not the mental health effects of targeted cognitive operations?
Finally, traditional laws of war might not be enough – we should look to human rights frameworks for solutions. These already include protections for freedom of thought, freedom of opinion and prohibitions against war propaganda that could shield civilians from cognitive attacks. States have obligations to uphold these rights both within their territory and abroad.
The use of increasingly sophisticated tactics and technologies to manipulate cognition and emotion poses one of the most insidious threats to human autonomy in our time. Only by adapting our legal frameworks to this challenge can we foster societal resilience and equip future generations to confront the crises and conflicts of tomorrow.
David Gisselsson Nord receives funding from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society and the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation. He has also received a travel grant from the US Department of Defence.
Alberto Rinaldi has received funding from the The Raoul Wallenberg Visiting Chair in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the Swedish Research Council.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham
Political and economic pressures might force Chinese president and overall leader Xi Jinping to delegate some of his powers to his deputies in a highly significant move. This has prompted some observers and media outlets to speculate that Xi’s grip on power may be waning.
A major part of why this is happening is likely to stem from Xi’s difficulties in dealing with China’s economic woes, which began from a real estate crisis in 2021. For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has relied on providing economic prosperity to legitimise its rule over the country.
But the continuously lacklustre performance of the Chinese economy over the past four years coupled with Trump’s trade war with Beijing is making recovery a difficult task. And this is likely to be a factor that undermines Xi’s rule.
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These rumours about Xi started just after the latest meeting, on June 30, of the politburo (the principal policy making body of the party), which brings China’s top leaders together to make major decisions.
For people who don’t follow Chinese politics, the idea of Xi delegating some authority might seem nothing special. However, in understanding China, it’s important to understand that Xi has massive power, and it seems the politburo is signalling there are some changes on the horizon.
What are the clues?
Symbolism and indirect language play an important role in how the communist party communicates with Chinese people. The way it is done comes through slogans or key phrases, which are collectively known as “tifa (提法)”’.
This method of information is important since it shapes political language and debate, and influences how a Chinese, and international, audience understands what’s going on. At first glance, the politburo’s call for enhancing “policy coordination” and the “review process” of major tasks may appear to indicate that the central government is seeking to ensure local officials follow through with Beijing’s agenda.
For experienced China watchers there are hints here that this powerful decision-making body is making a veiled threat against Xi for holding on to too much power. But the opaque nature of China’s elite decision-making process, where a great deal of backroom politics occurs behind closed doors, means that decoding its messages isn’t always easy.
China’s president Xi Jinping on a public outing, after several weeks when he was not seen in public.
Because of all of this, there is increasing speculation that a power struggle is in progress. This isn’t entirely surprising given Xi’s purge of many senior party officials through anti-corruption campaigns and dominance over the highest levels of government is likely to have earned him many enemies over the years.
Another sign that all isn’t going well with Xi’s regime is the removal of some his allies from key positions within the government. Xi began his anti-corruption campaign in 2012 when he became China’s leader. On paper, while officially framed as a drive to clean up corruption, evidence suggests that the campaign may have been used to remove Xi’s political rivals.
The problem for Xi is that the campaign is being used against his loyalists as well. In October 2023, defence minister Li Shangfu, who was considered a Xi ally, was sacked due to what was later confirmed in 2024 to be from due to corruption charges. But the dismissals of Xi loyalists continued.
But even if it weren’t and the purges are part of a concerted effort to stamp out corruption, Xi’s campaign will not only cast aspersions on his ability to appoint the right people into government, but also create a climate of fear among allies and potentially create further enemies. Either scenario puts Xi on the spot. But since Xi became China’s head of state in 2013, he and his loyalists have taken over leadership of many key national commissions, making him the most powerful Chinese leader since the time of Chairman Mao.
But it looks like Xi is about to delegate some of his power, and there are some other decisions that may indicate a shift. For the first time since coming into power in 2012, Xi skipped the annual summit organised by the Brics group (named after Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Instead, from July 5 to 7 this year, Chinese premier Li Qiang, led a delegation to Rio de Janeiro.
This isn’t the first time that Li has represented Xi in high-profile conferences abroad. In September 2023, Li attended the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, and has taken part in Asean summits.
But the Brics appearance alongside with Li’s increasingly prominent role in economic policy making may suggest that his influence is on the rise, while Xi’s is declining. Watch this space.
Chee Meng Tan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Bartlett, Senior Lecturer of Exercise Immunology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Surrey
CLL starts when a type of immune cell called a B cell – normally responsible for producing antibodies – becomes cancerous. This not only stops it from working properly, but also weakens the rest of the immune system.
For many people, CLL begins as a slow-moving, low-grade disease that doesn’t need immediate treatment. These patients are placed on “active monitoring,” where they’re regularly checked for signs of progression. Others, especially those with more aggressive forms of the disease, will need immediate and targeted treatment to destroy the cancer cells.
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People on active monitoring often find themselves in a kind of medical limbo: well enough not to need treatment, but not well enough to feel secure. Fatigue, anxiety, social isolation and fear of infection are common. For those receiving treatment, side effects including nausea, bleeding, diarrhoea and extreme tiredness can make everyday life even more challenging.
Because CLL weakens the body’s ability to fight infection, many people begin avoiding places where germs might spread: busy shops, family gatherings, even the gym. But while this instinct is understandable, it can come at a cost. Over time, isolation and inactivity can chip away at physical fitness, reduce resilience and make it harder to recover from illness or cope with stress.
The role of exercise
Exercise is good for everyone but for people living with CLL, it can be life-changing. Our research shows that physical activity is strongly linked to fewer symptoms and a better quality of life. Fatigue, the most common and often most debilitating symptom, was significantly lower in people who stayed active. Many also reported reduced pain and a greater sense of physical wellbeing.
Cancer-related fatigue isn’t just feeling a bit tired. It’s a deep, persistent exhaustion that doesn’t improve with sleep or rest. The exact biological reasons behind it aren’t fully understood, but one thing is clear: regular movement helps. People who are more active tend to feel better – and live better.
The good news is that even gentle activity can make a difference. Low-intensity activities are safe for almost everyone and come with meaningful health benefits. Walking, yoga, swimming – anything that gets you moving – can help ease symptoms. In fact, research shows that just 12 weeks of regular exercise can reduce fatigue and improve day-to-day wellbeing.
People with additional health concerns, such as heart disease, diabetes or bone conditions, should take extra care. It’s always a good idea to speak to a doctor or physiotherapist before starting a new routine. The PAR-Q+ (physical activity readiness questionnaire) is a helpful tool to assess whether it’s safe to begin exercising.
Once cleared, the goal is to work up to the recommended activity levels: 150–300 minutes of moderate activity a week (like brisk walking or cycling) or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity (like jogging or swimming), along with two sessions of muscle-strengthening activities per week. Start slowly and build gradually.
Because people with CLL are immunocompromised, it’s important to reduce infection risks while staying active. That might mean exercising outdoors, avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, or choosing quieter times at the gym. But, as long as precautions are taken, the benefits of movement far outweigh the risks.
Benefits of keeping active
In one of our pilot studies, people with CLL who had not yet started treatment showed smaller increases in tumour cell counts after 12 weeks of exercise. Their immune systems also appeared more robust, with stronger responses to abnormal cells. This research is still in its early stages, but it’s encouraging to see that exercise doesn’t appear to accelerate disease progression – and might even help to slow it.
The biggest improvements were seen in people who started off with the worst symptoms or poorest physical condition. In other words, those with the most to gain, gained the most. Older adults, in particular, seemed to benefit from even modest activity.
People receiving treatment were generally less active and reported lower quality of life than those who weren’t but their symptom levels were similar. That suggests physical activity might offer especially meaningful benefits for people going through treatment.
Exercise is already a well-established part of care for people with solid tumours such as breast or bowel cancer.
What’s different about CLL is that many people don’t receive treatment for years – yet still experience symptoms and lower quality of life. Our study shows that physical activity matters just as much for this group. Whether someone is on active monitoring or undergoing treatment, staying active can help ease symptoms, boost energy and improve daily life.
It’s a powerful reminder that even small steps can make a big difference and that living well with CLL isn’t just about waiting for treatment. It’s about reclaiming strength, mobility and agency, one movement at a time.
David Bartlett receives funding from the American Society of Hematology
A case that first appeared in a medical journal several years ago has recently resurfaced in the media, highlighting an unexpected risk of hormone therapies: a baby girl in Sweden developed unusually large genitals after lying on her father’s bare chest, accidentally exposed to his testosterone gel.
The incident is a reminder that hormone treatments, while safe when used correctly, can pose risks to others if proper precautions aren’t followed.
Testosterone is a powerful sex hormone that plays a crucial role in male development. In the early months of life, babies undergo rapid development, making their bodies, and hormones, extremely sensitive. Even small amounts of testosterone absorbed through the skin can affect a baby’s development, particularly with repeated exposure.
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During “mini-puberty” – a short surge in hormone levels occurring a few months after birth – boys experience rising testosterone levels that help complete reproductive system development and prime it for adulthood. This process also influences brain development.
In girls, oestrogen rises slightly during this period, but testosterone remains very low. When a girl is exposed to external testosterone, such as from hormone gel, it can cause unexpected changes, including enlarged clitoris or fusion of the labia. This is precisely what occurred in the Swedish case.
Testosterone gels are commonly prescribed to treat men with low testosterone deficiency. The gel is typically applied once daily to clean, dry skin on the shoulders, upper arms or stomach. These alcohol-based gels help the hormone absorb into the skin.
While the gel dries within minutes, residue can remain on the skin for an hour or two after application. If someone touches the treated area too soon, or rests directly on it, they can inadvertently absorb some of the hormone. This risk is particularly significant for babies and children, whose thinner, more absorbent skin and developing bodies make them more vulnerable.
Testosterone gels are also increasingly used off-label in women to treat menopause symptoms (such as low libido, low mood and fatigue) and at around one-tenth of the dose given to men. This lower dose is achieved by applying a smaller amount of the same male product — this time to the lower abdomen, buttocks or outer thighs.
This means there’s much less hormone overall, but incidental exposure from women is also possible, for example, when holding a child soon after application.
Some perspective
While stories like this understandably cause concern, it’s crucial to understand the actual risk level. In the UK, around 50,000 to 100,000 people are prescribed testosterone on the NHS, with gel formulations popular due to their ease of application. If accidental exposure were common, we would see far more cases than the small number reported in medical journals.
The instructions accompanying these gels are clear: apply only to specified areas, wash hands immediately, cover the skin once dry and avoid close skin contact for several hours. When these guidelines are followed, transfer is very unlikely.
In the case of the Swedish child, when the father stopped resting the baby on his bare chest, the genital changes reversed over time. This pattern holds true for other reported cases – if exposure stops early, many effects can fade naturally.
However, in more severe or prolonged cases, children may need medical treatment. This could include hormonal tests, continued monitoring, anti-hormone treatment, or even surgery if physical changes don’t resolve. Early intervention is key, making it essential to consult a doctor if there’s any concern.
For those with babies, young children, or pregnant partners at home, the solution is straightforward planning. Apply the gel when you won’t be in direct contact immediately afterwards, or consider alternative application methods such as injections, skin patches, or tablets (available in the US), which carry lower risks of unintentional exposure to others.
This case serves as a valuable reminder that testosterone therapy, like all medications, comes with responsibilities. When used properly, it’s an effective treatment for men with diagnosed testosterone deficiency, improving sexual function and mood, with evidence suggesting it can also support muscle mass, bone health, and metabolism.
There is no need to fear these treatments, but if you are prescribed this medication, use it responsibly and follow the instructions carefully.
Daniel Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natalie Hanley-Smith, Teaching fellow in early modern history, University of Warwick
The Stolen Kiss by Jean Honore Fragonard (1787).Hermitage Museum
A stolen glance across a crowded room, a shadowy figure slipping through a doorway, a lover hidden behind a curtain – adultery has long been a drama of secrecy. From Renaissance masterpieces to tabloid snapshots, the act of romantic betrayal has not only shaped personal lives but also left its mark on art history. Painters across the centuries have turned this most intimate of transgressions into art, inviting viewers to become voyeurs of passion, guilt and desire.
Historically, artistic representations of adultery have been used to raise questions about the importance of love and sexual desire in marriage. Artists have also used their works to explore themes of culpability and punishment, and to explore the consequences of infidelity for the families of the adulterers.
Renaissance and Baroque artists picked up on the theme of adultery by depicting episodes from the Bible. Portraying scenes that were set in eras during which the punishment women faced for adultery was death, artists including Rembrandt, Rubens and Tintoretto, explored religious disciplinary processes and the difficulties of pronouncing moral judgments.
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Rembrandt’s The Woman Taken in Adultery (1644) tells the story of how Christ’s compliance with Jewish law was put to the test by a council of Pharisees (members of a biblical Jewish sect who were fanatic about obeying religious laws), who bring an adulteress before him.
The punishment for her crime according to Mosaic law was to be stoned to death. Christ’s response, “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”, emphasised the moral hypocrisy of the men who stood as judges.
Close up of The Woman Taken in Adultery by Rembrandt (1644). National Gallery
Although the figure of Jesus is prominent in the painting, the adulteress is central. She appears penitent, dressed in white and bathed in light – a striking contrast to the dark male figures that surround her.
That is not to say women were always portrayed as vulnerable. Throughout early modern Europe (circa 1450-1800), perceptions of women were heavily influenced by biblical figures such as Eve.
Women were largely believed to be the more lustful sex, weaker and more likely to succumb to temptation, and to be more deceptive and manipulative than men. The German Renaissance painter, Lucas Cranach demonstrated this belief in The Fable of the Mouth of Truth (1534).
The painting depicts another married woman surrounded by men who are scrutinising her. But in this case, she is not repentant. Instead, she is trying to trick her way out of receiving any punishment for her infidelity with the help of her lover, who is masquerading as a fool.
Certain artistic genres were employed to publicise and critique changes to laws regarding adultery and divorce. For centuries, church courts dealt with marital disputes and adultery in Britain.
A full divorce (that allowed both parties to remarry) was only possible by act of parliament, which made it unobtainable for all but very wealthy men.
The art of divorce
After the Matrimonial Causes Act was passed in 1857, divorce became a matter for the civil courts, and therefore a viable option for a greater proportion of British society.
Several pre-Raphaelite artworks, including Augustus Egg’s Past and Present series, depicted the damage that infidelity and subsequent divorce could have on the family unit. Egg’s work emphasised that women, who were often ostracised and cut from their social and familial networks after divorce, were punished more severely than men for their transgressions.
Past and Present Number Two by Augustus Egg (1858). Tate Britain
Satirists including James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson chose very different devices to critique laws concerning adultery when they ridiculed “Criminal Conversation”, a civil suit that was introduced in the early 18th century, and only ended with the 1857 Act.
“Crim con” allowed a man to sue his wife’s lover for robbing him of her affections and domestic support. If his suit was successful, the husband could claim financial compensation from his rival, sometimes to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, such suits were most often pursued by members of the landed gentry and the aristocracy. Moreover, as they were heard in the Court of the King’s Bench, which was open to journalists and the public, the salacious details of the affairs were published in newspapers and pamphlets.
The 1782 cartoon by James Gillray, depicting Sir Richard Worsley helping George Bisset view his wife naked in a bath-house. National Portrait Gallery
Crim con suits were much deplored by contemporary moralists. They emphasised the impropriety of a man receiving money from another man for the sexual services of his wife, as well as the debauchery of some elite husbands, who were viewed as being culpable and complicit in their wives’ affairs.
The crim con trial of Worsley versus Bisset in February 1782 attracted a considerable amount of publicity and was depicted by several of London’s best satirists. A story about the affair that inspired many satirical prints had been discussed at length in court. Lady Worsley had been enjoying a dip at Maidstone bathhouse, when her husband allegedly hoisted her lover, Captain Bisset, on to his shoulders, so that he could see her naked body.
The notion that Worsley was a voyeur who had pimped his wife out for his own delectation was so popular that it even influenced the judge, who awarded him a humiliating one shilling in damages.
The satires were meant to entertain and titillate their audiences, but they also raised awareness of the apparent profligacy of the ruling elite. Representations of the adulterous liaisons of celebrities, including military heroes like Admiral Lord Nelson, politicians like Charles James Fox, actresses like Mary Robinson, and even royals, such as George IV, were used to highlight their moral corruption, and they provided much fodder for activists demanding political reform.
The history of adultery in art draws attention to the intersections between personal relationships and the public realm. Even today, when consensual relationships between adults are not formally policed, affairs continue to prompt public discussions about private morality, ideal marriages and the suitability of casting judgment. We continue to enjoy the opportunity to moralise while being entertained by the salacious portrayals of other people’s affairs.
Natalie Hanley-Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Giray Gozgor, Associate Professor of Economics & Finance, School of Management, University of Bradford
Historically, UK spending on defence has often been pitted against welfare, education and local government. But at a time when the government has pledged to meet Nato’s target for defence spending – 5% of GDP in the next decade, up from around 2.3% – it appears to be offering a different fiscal equation.
The government has suggested that it aims to shift the tax burden upwards, targeting especially large profits and tax avoidance. Despite recent fury over its welfare reforms, as far as taxes go, the government still appears to believe that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the weight.
Past approaches to balancing the books relied on austerity or slashing welfare spending. Throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, Conservative governments framed public finance as a rigid trade-off. This mentality dominated budget decisions, forcing domestic priorities to shrink as defence budgets grew.
However, Labour now appears to want to boost defence spending without austerity-level cuts to public services.
Beyond defence, this shift of the tax burden could signal a broader transformation in how national priorities are financed. If implemented effectively, this approach could protect public services even during times of global insecurity.
But while it may seem like a win-win, reforms of this nature have often faced political resistance or been deprioritised in favour of short-term fixes. What is different now is that global economic uncertainty is creating growing pressure for more sustainable and equitable choices.
So who pays?
The core question in any public finance debate is not what the money is spent on, but who pays for it. First, the government wants to close some of the loopholes that allow large firms to legally reduce their tax bill. Of course, the risk here is that some leave the UK and their taxes are lost entirely.
The government also has in its sights high-income individuals. While around 60% of tax receipts come from the top 10% of earners, these people can also benefit from lower effective tax rates thanks to tax-efficient investments, for example. Again though, the risk for Labour is that it causes some of them to leave the country.
Similarly, those with a high net worth often hold assets offshore in order to pay less tax in the UK. This can be legal, but opaque, and the government would like to increase the tax these people pay.
Lastly, Labour is looking more closely at what to do about taxing sectors with windfall profits, namely energy.
This approach is not only ideological but also strategic. By targeting wealth and excess, the government hopes to fund new priorities without alienating working and middle-class voters, and to avoid painful cuts to essential services.
But clearly, it is not quite as simple as that. To make this sustainable, a combination of targeted tax reform, economic growth and spending efficiency will be needed. However, this approach could mark a pivot towards a fairer way of sharing the burden. It also reflects a more profound shift in political storytelling.
Labour leaders have made clear that there will be no return to austerity. The broader policy direction suggests ambitions to invest in the NHS, early-years and social housing, as well as refining in-work welfare benefits such as universal credit.
But these aims require fiscal headroom, and this is where the challenge lies. Parallel commitments such as raising defence spending and funding welfare might look impossible to live up to. Many are questioning whether the government can maintain economic stability without increasing the overall tax burden on ordinary households.
The answer depends on three things: political will, economic performance and execution. Even if there is public support for a fairer tax system, building and enforcing it will require effort and patience beyond this parliament. The government will need to strengthen tax compliance, close legal loopholes and prevent the flight of capital.
None are easy, but we argue they are entirely achievable. Progress globally is already proving it. Automatic tax-data sharing between nations and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s global minimum tax (which ensures that large corporations operating in member nations pay at least 15% tax) have made offshore tax havens far less viable.
At home, modernising tax laws and properly funding enforcement can shut down legal exploitation of the system. With political will and international cooperation, these reforms can deliver a fairer system without sacrificing competitiveness.
The UK’s debt to GDP ratio is very high, and economic growth is sluggish. Therefore, there is little space for manoeuvre. That’s why tax reform, not just tax increases, will be key. Efficiency in collection, transparency and closing loopholes are just as crucial as raising tax rates.
The financial implications of military expansion are real, but so are the choices in how the country funds it. Labour is betting that a fairer tax system can finance Britain’s rising defence commitments while protecting public services. However, efforts to procure or produce new military equipment rank very low on the public’s priorities..
Aiming taxes upwards could be a vote-winner with lower and middle earners. JMundy/Shutterstock
Defence needs steady funding to handle national security threats. Welfare programmes are vital to support vulnerable people, reduce economic inequality and to help more people into paid work.
Progressive taxation taps wealth from the richest but often sparks fierce resistance from powerful groups. The alternative (cutting schools, hospitals or pensions) is politically and morally costly.
But this strategy requires clear communication and a commitment to both security and social justice. If successful, it could mark a real turning point in how the UK balances its responsibilities.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sarah Parkhouse, British Academy Research Fellow, Centre for Biblical Studies, University of Manchester
Cynthia Erivo, the award-winning actor and star of Wicked, will play Jesus Christ at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles between August 1 and 3 2025.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the casting of the Wicked star as the son of God in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s provocative rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar has caused upset on social media. Accusations of blasphemy have been made based on Erivo’s gender, sexuality, race – and even hairstyle.
The UK-based Christian magazine Premier Christianity responded to the outcry, featuring articles on whether a female Jesus was “inclusive” or “offensive”. Erivo laughed it all off.
I’m an expert in the reception of Biblical narratives. As such, I believe the outrage over this particular casting choice misses the fact that women have been involved in reimagining and retelling the Jesus story since antiquity.
The earliest gospels were originally written anonymously. They have only retroactively been ascribed to male authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Within a few generations after Jesus’s death, a work titled the Gospel of Mary was written from the perspective of Mary Magdalene, positioning her as Jesus’s favoured disciple and bearer of secret knowledge.
While we can’t prove the Gospel of Mary was written by a woman any more than we can prove the four canonical gospels were written by men, within the text the male disciple Peter attacks Mary precisely for being a woman. This suggests that the author was clued into gender dynamics, especially in the context of early Christian discourse and authority.
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As Christianity was gaining state approval within the Roman empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, the elite woman poet Faltonia Betitia Proba and the Byzantine empress Aelia Eudocia composed their own gospel retellings. They reconfigured the Hebrew Bible and gospel stories by using verses from Virgil and Homer.
These ancient works offer a distinctively female perspective. Their retellings pay careful attention to the experiences of female characters who are often marginalised in the canonical tradition, depicting the particularly gruelling experience of Mary’s maternal grief when her son was crucified.
These retellings aren’t apocryphal outliers – they belong to the same literary tradition of the four gospels Bible readers know today.
Just as Matthew and Luke (and possibly John) very clearly reworked Mark by adapting and rearranging scenes and strings of words, so too the Gospel of Mary retells the resurrection scene from John. Proba and Eudocia combine and rearrange gospel material to tell the story anew again.
Women continue to retell the Jesus story today, sometimes focusing more on the female characters. In Edinburgh, director Suzanne Lofthus has been writing and directing the city’s annual Passion Play for the last 20 years. Her 2024 and 2025 productions reimagined Jesus’s masculinity and placed the experiences of women at its centre. This year, she showed Jesus willingly getting stuck into the “women’s work” of making bread at the house of Mary and Martha, and questioning the culpability of the man in the story of the woman caught in adultery.
The Nativity Story focused on women’s experiences.
Catherine Hardwicke, meanwhile, best known for directing the first Twilight movie, directed The Nativity Story in 2006, a tender portrayal of Mary’s journey through her pregnancy, with particular emphasis on the women around her.
These creative contributions are really quite different to brutal, hypermasculine retellings such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004), for which a sequel is reportedly in development. Hardwicke herself contrasted The Nativity Story with The Passion, noting striking differences “especially [in] the quarts of blood per frame”.
Women playing Jesus
The role of Jesus is often played by women in these retellings. Erivo herself sang the role of Mary Magdalene in a 2017 New York concert that led to two all-female concept albums, controversially titled She Is Risen. The project was the brainchild of singer and actor Morgan James, who performed the role of Jesus.
Just last year, an all-female cast performed Jesus Christ Superstar in Santa Barbara, California. And a gender-blind casting led to the role of Jesus being given to Mina Kawahara in a 2017 production of the hippy-ish retelling of the gospel, Godspell, at Villanova Theatre, Pennsylvania. She followed a precedent of other female leads in this musical. The Japan-born Kawahara donned a white pantsuit with flowers in her hair.
A Japanese woman named Yuko Takeda took on the role of the son of God in the 2010 Helsinki Passion Play – another casting choice that enraged some conservative Christians. The female director, Miira Sippola, commented that the decision would free the audience from focusing too much on whether the performer resembles the Jesus of medieval artwork – already so far from the historical Jesus.
Over in New Jersey, a 15-year-old American girl played the role of Jesus in a 2023 passion play, carrying a 12-foot cross for over two miles in bare feet. These are a mere smattering of examples, of which there are many more.
The controversy over Erivo’s casting reveals more about cultural assumptions than historical precedent. The Hollywood Bowl’s Jesus Christ Superstar continues the often-overlooked tradition of women who have long participated in retelling, reshaping and performing the story of Jesus — on the page, on screen and on stage.
Sarah Parkhouse receives funding from the British Academy.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachael Eastham, Lecturer in Young People’s Health Inequalities, Division of Health Research, Lancaster University
Homabay, Kenya, in February 2025.Rachael Eastham, CC BY
My phone wouldn’t stop ringing – nurses, social workers, young mothers – all begging for help. ‘I’ve lost my job,’ ‘I have no food,’ ‘What do we do now?’ I felt helpless.
These are the words of Rogers Omollo, founder and CEO of Activate Action – a youth-led non-profit organisation that supports young people with HIV and disabilities in Homa Bay, a town in west Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria.
As specialists in youth and sexual and reproductive health, we were on a field trip to learn from Omollo and others like him. We wanted to find out about the work they were doing to tackle HIV, stigma and health inequalities.
But our time there was dominated by one thing: President Donald Trump’s executive order which put almost all international spending by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on pause for a 90-day review and subsequently took a wrecking ball to all international aid programmes funded by the US.
In July, research published in The Lancet medical journal found that the US funding cuts towards foreign humanitarian aid could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, with a third of those at risk of premature deaths being children. Davide Rasella, who co-authored the report, said low- and middle-income countries were facing a shock “comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict”.
In the immediate aftermath, we saw firsthand the profound impact the “pause” had in this community. Activate Action is not directly funded by USAID, but as we followed in the footsteps of our host, Omollo, meeting the organisation’s collaborators and beneficiaries, the true extent of the funding freeze became shockingly apparent.
Places like Homa Bay relied heavily on USAID funding to keep hospitals and clinics running, to ensure access to essential medicines, and to support reproductive health and HIV programmes. The executive order, in principle, resulted in the immediate halting of over US$68 billion (£51 billion) in foreign aid, a substantial portion of which supports lifesaving reproductive health and HIV programmes worldwide.
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As we walked through abandoned offices and healthcare facilities speaking to bewildered people out of work and in need of critical services in February 2025, the chilling reality set in. Omollo reflected:
People who have spent years saving lives are now struggling to survive. The clinics are empty, the hope in their voices fading. It broke my heart. I wanted to scream, to fix it, but the truth hit hard – we can’t depend on one lifeline. If funding stops, lives should not. We must build something stronger, something that lasts.
So, before we even set off on our research trip to unite sexual and reproductive health advocates and collaborate with African partners, we knew we were swimming against this tide.
Final figures remain unclear but in early 2025, the abrupt suspension of an estimated US$500 million of funding to Kenya was suggested by Amnesty International to have led to the layoff of 54,000 community health workers – many of whom had been part of robust, locally led responses to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
The decision to do this was driven by US audit and efficiency “reevaluations” over 8,000 miles away in Washington. Decisions were made and implemented by small numbers of people within the Trump administration including Elon Musk, whose estimated individual wealth far exceeds the gross domestic product of many entire east African nations, including Kenya.
Despite years of progress in community-based healthcare systems managed by Kenyans just like Activate Action, these cuts by one external donor disrupted critical services overnight. This also demonstrated that African health systems, no matter how effective, remain subject to profound external control.
Our project was funded in October 2024, before Trump’s re-election. One week of activities in the UK, one week in Kenya. By the time Activate Action visited Lancaster, in the north of England, in January 2025, we had already started to raise eyebrows as our colleagues began receiving communications from USAID-funded initiatives about pausing projects. Two weeks later, by the time we gathered in Kenya, the immediate human cost was clear to see.
‘The field has been eviscerated’
We sat at the back of a meeting observing training for an Activate Action initiative that would see community health champions offer peer support for their neighbours on safer sex and HIV prevention. In a building that was usually busy and populated by USAID-funded staff, the lights remained on in only one room.
Before visiting Homa Bay, we knew of its reputation when it came to the so-called triple threat of gender-based violence, HIV infection and teenage pregnancy rates – all of which disproportionately affects this semi-rural county in west Kenya.
As we watched the training, a colleague based in Europe (who was instrumental in connecting some of the members of our group) texted after learning we were in Kenya, saying:
It’s terrifying. Document it. No one gets it. The field has been eviscerated.
So, what did this evisceration look like?
Staff directly affected by the order were either not permitted to talk about what was happening on the record or didn’t feel safe doing so. We spoke to at least five people who told us directly they couldn’t “speak out” and were nervous about us taking any photographs.
An Activate Action event on International Condoms Day in February 2023. Rogers Omollo, CC BY
We saw how scores of people were served their notice to cease projects, backdated and effective immediately – a stop work order, followed by (for reasons with cloudy legal foundations) official terminations to contracts. Their economic and professional futures left hanging in the balance.
As we navigated workshops and meetings, Omollo (now unexpectedly advantaged through Activate Action not being USAID-funded) continued to receive multiple texts, calls and emails from people seeking work.
A researcher we know working on a USAID supported HIV and maternity care project described doing frantic overtime in the face of uncertainty. She needed to put in hours of extra (unpaid) work to communicate with research participants as it would not be ethical to abruptly disappear on people currently engaged in an active research programme.
She had no way to manage expectations with those she spoke to and no way of knowing if they were saying a final “thank you and goodbye” to the people she had been working with for months. Despite the descriptions of USAID project funds being “paused”, she was quickly served a full termination of employment notice.
In east Africa, where this sudden and mass unemployment of vital technical and administrative staff is happening, more than half of young people aged 15-35 are unemployed. The rate is even higher among young women in rural areas (up to 66%.)
A greater horror unfolds when you consider who these unemployed workers are usually paid to help because they serve communities with some of the highest needs related to HIV, teenage pregnancy and gender-based violence.
The youth health facility we visited, for example, was locked up when we arrived. We sat in stunned silence in an empty three-roomed building with a youth HIV counsellor. We were shown photographs that showed how it was once a vibrant and busy place.
Locked up youth health facility. Rachael Eastham, CC BY
Here, the free services and information on HIV, contraception and mental health was being delivered by skilled and non-judgmental youth specialists. But it was closed down from January 20, 2025 and its future remains uncertain. A free condom dispenser outside lay empty, all supplies given out on closure day in a last ditch attempt to help young people remain safe over the coming weeks.
In Homa Bay, huge achievements have been made in addressing teenage pregnancy and adolescent HIV infection in recent years. There has been a remarkable decline in prevalence rates, new infections, and HIV-related deaths, aided by robust treatment programmes that contribute to better health. People have been living with HIV at undetectable levels, therefore unable to transmit infection. But this “safe” status requires ongoing treatment with antiretroviral medication.
What now in the absence of USAID?
But at the time of our visit, the delivery of antiretroviral therapy was becoming more restricted and would require collection by the user every three weeks, rather than the usual three months, therefore lasting the user a shorter time. To service providers we spoke to, this increase in the frequency of collection of medication was known to be a significant barrier for people having to travel long distances more frequently without transport to get their supply replenished.
Omollo explained to us that Homa Bay is also a medication hub, of sorts. People come here from other communities where, due to stigma, the risks of being identified as someone who is HIV positive in their own communities are much higher.
Every conversation we had yielded new information about the reality. Gender-based violence projects were also suspended, in part because of the Trump administration’s intentions to end “gender ideology”. A service provider joked despondently during a presentation how: “I got sacked for saying gender.”
In Kenya, femicide (the murder of women or girls because of their gender) has been described as a “crisis” requiring urgent action. In Homa Bay specifically, the sexual and gender-based violence statistics are higher than national averages and have been on the rise, especially among young people.
This follows alarming countrywide coverage about femicide across Kenya including high profile and horrifying cases such as that of the Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei.. Official figures are unclear but there are currently widespread protests and calls to action related to this injustice.
Activate Action had recently won one USAID award focusing on men living with HIV and substance use problems (factors that are both implicated in gender-based violence). Since the USAID funding freeze this offer has instantly been dissolved with no expectation of reinstatement.
Meanwhile, the fight against cervical cancer – the leading cause of cancer death in Kenya – has also been hit. Human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination campaigns across the county have stalled, despite the fact the vaccines help prevent cervical cancer.
At one point, a 23-year-old mother of three small children asked us directly if we found it troubling (as she did) that she will not be able to receive maternal healthcare and her contraception. The list of effects is grim and feels endless.
Collateral damage
When our group convened for a workshop at a community venue with sexual and reproductive health and rights staff from across the area, the chatter was similarly focused on the effects of the USAID funding freeze, but this time in the direct shadow of operations.
Next door, four-wheel drive Jeeps had been recalled and locked behind USAID premises gates, gathering dust instead of being out in the field delivering HIV outreach services. They represented the stasis of operations more widely.
Dr Peter Ibembe, from a party of service providers visiting from Uganda, was formerly a Programme Director for the non-governmental organisation Reproductive Health Uganda where he was in charge of service delivery. He spoke to us about the atmosphere:
An eerie tone of quiet has descended on the place. Many have been suddenly rendered jobless; creating mental stress, depression, anxiety. But there has also been an indirect effect on the wider community through the entire value chain: landlords, banks and other credit institutions; food vendors; gas stations; transportation facilities and companies; hotels, restaurants and lodges; schools hospitals and the like.
Everyone has been left in limbo. Kenya, despite gradual improvements, is a lower middle income country. Poverty identified by the World Bank as a key development challenge for the nation with, in 2022, over 20 million Kenyans identified as living below the poverty line. So these knock-on effects can be drastic.
At an organisational level we also saw clearly how the boundaries of any one project running within any organisation cannot be neatly drawn, nor can projects be plucked from this matrix discretely in the way we might imagine when we hear how “USAID projects” have been suspended. This way of thinking profoundly undermines the reality of what these cuts mean because many projects are interdependent and interrelated. Omollo added:
Whilst Activate Action was not directly funded by USAID, the overall reduction in health services affects the community they serve. The lack of support for HIV prevention, mental health and economic empowerment programmes placed additional strain on grassroots organisations like us … which have had to fill gaps with limited resources.
Omollo taking a selfie with Activate Action on International Condoms Day in February 2023. Rogers Omollo, CC BY
Services the world over, especially community based services, usually operate with multiple funding streams each providing different projects. Naturally the people, resources and activities overlap. To stress, this is not evidence of the “corruption” the Trump administration claims it wants to weed out, but it is the reality of how services reliant on external funding work.
It is usual that a patchwork of project grants function together to keep the doors open and the lights on. In fact, the sharing of operational resource is what bolsters an organisation’s capacity to serve its communities most effectively.
Considering “USAID projects” as single discretely bounded entities belie the messy complexity of how community and healthcare services work.
For another example of this kind of inter-connection, look no further than “table banking”. Table banking has been described as a “microcredit movement by women and for women” – effectively a DIY bank. We saw table banking used at Activate Action’s Street Business School, an initiative that tackles HIV through training women and building economic sustainability so they do not become trapped in poverty which may force them into have transactional sex. From a seated circle under trees, we watched as the collective pay in and take out loans to support their businesses from a central informal “bank account”.
Beneficiaries from this project continue to come together every Thursday, pooling finances and taking loans to sustain their business needs for the coming week (for example, buying stock for their market stalls). They told us how they are planning to collaborate on a catering business which will mean the older, sicker members of the group remain able to work and earn.
Similarly, Omollo told us how “a bit like table banking”, among his friends and colleagues, they also pool finance on a weekly basis to tick off items on a collective shopping list. He said: “One week we buy for one person, the next week, the next person and so on, until we all have a microwave.”
These demonstrations of microfinance arguably present, however idealistic, inspiration for a more financially sustainable future whereby its principles offer a “light of hope” at grassroots level, possibilities for nations in meeting sustainable development goals and, crucially in this context, freedom from dependency on external donors.
Social dictators of health
When we planned this exchange project, we wanted to work with Activate Action because of our shared interests.
Its explicit focus on the “social determinants of health” (the non-medical factors that affect health) is a refreshing departure from so many health programmes that seek to intervene on a person’s behaviour without attending to how it may be shaped by the wider social system.
For example, in the case of Homa Bay, Activate Action works to address root causes, such as poverty. Poverty means that transactional sex (which could be sex for food or period products) is common. Unsafe sex can be a hallmark of these sexual encounters, increasing HIV risk and transmission. Helping women build businesses, earn their own money to buy food and make their own period pads, reduces the need to trade sex for necessities.
As we sat discussing the various ways the cancelling of USAID would have devastating effects on different programmes and so the lives of different people, we realised how myriad social determinants – such as income, unemployment and healthcare services – are overwhelmingly contingent on distant regimes. Regimes run by people who seem to demonstrate little regard for the lives of disadvantaged and minoritised people.
No period of consultation, no management of expectations – a profound example of how bigger systems that govern our social lives can, in fact, dictate the outcomes of our health.
Antiretroviral drugs for HIV literally keep people alive and prevent transmission to others. Efforts to critique the USAID freeze by the inspector general of USAID, Paul Martin, saw him sacked. Again, no reason was given, and the White House did not have any comment.
When we were trying to explore whether termination notices for staff in Kenya were even legal, one media report about a judicial effort to halt the USAID stop work order noted that Trump has a “high threshold for legal risk”. An insight into what type of threats we may need to consider when trying to understand risks to and protections for health in the future.
Dr Ibembe, who provided closing remarks to our workshop, highlighted how “the effect of USAID cuts on the east African development landscape has been nothing short of seismic. It has created an environment of uncertainty, fear and stress. In some instances, up to 80% of health-related initiatives are donor supported. The funding and operational gap created is almost insurmountable.”
This reliance on external financial support and limited domestic financing in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries is common. This makes a nation vulnerable. Kenya also experiences substantial “donor dependency” especially across the health system which makes it harder to absorb the shock of a donor pulling funds.
In other words, this is a highly precarious system that is going through a shock which it will find incredibly difficult to withstand.
The situation is a stark reminder of just how unfair the power dynamics are that dictate African health governance and sovereignty.
Conversations about reducing the dependence of countries like Kenya on external donors have been going on for a long time. Throughout it has been acknowledged that any transition away from donor dependence needs to be carefully managed to avoid upsetting all the gains that have been made through initiatives like those funded by USAID. This has been completely impossible given the pace of change since January 2025 when the USAID stop work order came into play.
African solutions to African problems
The question now is not merely how African institutions will survive these disruptions but how they will leverage them as an impetus for change. Discussions about donor dependency arguably contribute to the framing of African states and institutions that are economically vulnerable and a “risk”. This in turn creates a negative bias that has recently been identified as costing African nations billions in lost or missed investment opportunities.
While financial constraints are a reality, the dominance of stereotypes also means we may overlook the effective strategic responses and resilience demonstrated by African organisations over the years. The challenge is not simply to reduce donor reliance but to reposition African institutions as key architects of health solutions through approaches that emphasise ownership, sustainability and regional integration.
Omollo talking to The Street Business School in January 2023. Rogers Omollo, CC BY
The Afya na Haki (Ahaki) institute provides a clear example of this shift towards what they refer to as “Africentric” models of health governance. The aim is to build African solutions to African problems.
This approach is anchored on four key pillars: amplifying positive African narratives; strengthening engagement with African regional institutions; supporting and fostering collaboration among African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other organisations; and bringing together African experts and communities to create knowledge that reflects local realities and needs.
Yet, restrictive policies that pre-date the USAID cuts such as the global gag rule which means NGOs are prohibited from receiving any US government funding if they provide, advocate for, or even refer to abortion services, have significantly disrupted this work, forcing institutions to rethink their operational strategies. An Ahaki staff member told us how their core focus on empowering Africans has been “thrown into disarray”.
Research that puts African stories and priorities front and centre is crucial – not just for shaping policies but for shifting the focus from dependence on external aid to African-led solutions and self-determination.
‘Hope hasn’t disappeared’
Within days of the USAID executive order on January 20, the USAID website was unreachable and our colleagues in Homa Bay sat reeling. By February 14, just after our visit, it was confirmed that a federal judge had successfully blocked the funding suspensions, although the relevance of this for people and projects like those we met in Homa Bay, whose contracts had already been terminated, was limited.
This executive order is one of many that has triggered global shockwaves. But for every action there is a reaction and we have also witnessed international resistance, from protests of USAID and nonprofit workers in Washington, to 500 Kenyan community workers demanding their unpaid salaries.
Musk’s company Tesla has been subject to widespread boycott and coordinated protest by “Tesla Takedown” in over 250 cities around the world. Canada has also made strides to reject American imports and strengthen its domestic markets, building greater independence from the USA, echoing desires of many African nations in relation to US donor dependence.
Musk suggested that USAID needs “to die” due to widespread corruption – an assertion that remains unsubstantiated. However, the violence and damage of this sentiment is being realised. As the sites we visited remain eerie and empty, gathering dust, our immediate concern is for the people and communities that agencies once funded by USAID represent and serve.
Omollo, and others like him, are now finding new ways to navigate these problems. The ripple effects of the USAID funding freeze have hit hard, programs have stalled, uncertainty has grown and communities are feeling the strain.
“But in the cracks, we’ve found ways to adapt,” he said. “At Activate Action, we’ve leaned on local partnerships, stretched every resource, and kept showing up for young people. Hope hasn’t disappeared; it’s just become something we fight for daily.”
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We would like to acknowledge the specific contribution of Rogers Omollo from Activate Action in developing this article.
Christopher Baguma works with Afya na Haki as a Director of Programmes.
At the moment, everyone needs to fill in an individual voter registration application at least 12 days before an election. Automatic registration would enable electoral officials to update the electoral rolls without people having to make an application to register to vote. They could use other reliable data to make the electoral register as accurate and complete as possible.
Electoral officials would then write to the potential voter to inform them that they had been added to the register. They would have the opportunity to make any corrections needed.
The details are still to be worked out and the change would not come overnight. The process may be semi-automated to begin with – with the individual process sitting alongside some automation.
Why is automatic registration needed?
Many people don’t register in time for elections. Some don’t intend to vote, but others assume that they’re already registered. Some are also just busy.
The result is that there are around 7-8 million people who are not correctly registered when the polling stations open on election day. A significant number are then turned away. The problem is getting worse as the number of people who are not registered is also rising at an alarming rate.
Estimated number of people missing from the electoral register at UK general elections, 1945-2024.
What is especially troubling is that there are large gaps in registrations by age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Nearly all over-65-year-olds are on the register, but younger people are increasingly missing. Only 60% of 18-to-19-year-olds are on the electoral rolls – and 16% of the soon-to-be-enfranchised 16- to 17-year-olds (you can currently register to vote at 16).
Automatic registration will therefore be crucial to making votes at 16 a success. Asking and reminding young people to register would inevitably involve an enormous administrative effort. But if data could be transferred from schools and government departments to election officials to put them straight onto the roll, it would save both time and money – and bring about a higher participation rate.
Does automatic voter registration work?
Roughly half of countries around the around the world use automatic voter registration – including Germany, the Netherlands, Iceland and Finland. Countries which have historically not had automatic registration, such as the US, Malta, Canada and Australia, have all moved to at least partially implement it over recent years.
In a recent report with colleagues, I set out how this can be implemented and suggested a range of datasets that could be securely used.
Electoral rolls could be updated when people apply for a passport, register to pay council tax, update their driving licence details, register at university or claim benefits. Electoral officials could also be authorised to update the electoral rolls with data such as council tax data and information held by the Department for Work and Pensions.
One option would be to register people to vote when they apply for a passport. Shutterstock/ClimbWhenReady
Data sharing is already used in electoral registration. Every time a voter registration application is made, it is checked against another government dataset. There is therefore already the data infrastructure to enable automatic registration to work.
Electoral officials already use such data to register, remove or re-register people. This has enabled a lot of savings and less administrative hassle for many people.
Voter identification changes
The government’s election bill proposals will also extend the forms of identification that voters can present at polling stations to include bank cards. It clears the path for future digital forms of ID to be accepted.
The last government introduced a requirement for everyone to provide photographic identification at polling stations at UK general elections and some local elections. Accepted forms of identification include passports and driving licences but also a range of other options. If citizens don’t have identification, then they can apply for a free voter authority certificate, provided that they do so before the deadline.
However, our research found that many people were turned away in polling stations as they did not have required identification. Poll workers reported that the impact particularly affected some groups, such as students and women.
They may not, however, go far enough. The previous government restricted the independence of the Electoral Commission and these changes have not been reversed by the Labour government. The Electoral Commission will play an important role in automatic registration, so the government could renew its independence to help build confidence and trust in elections.
Nonetheless, the move to automatic registration would be a major step forward for a changing democracy – as long as the government now puts on the afterburners to power the effort needed to make these changes work effectively in time for the next election.
Toby James has previously received funding from the AHRC, ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Electoral Commission, Nuffield Foundation, the McDougall Trust, Unlock Democracy, International IDEA and the Canadian SSHRC.
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